ACEI Director General, Shane Dempsey said, “The engineering sector is currently wrestling with how to deliver 50,000 more houses whilst reducing carbon. This paradox is challenging the entire construction sector as it tries to design and build increasingly ambitions housing and infrastructure targets whilst fundamentally changing how it operates.

“This year’s budget is a once in a generation opportunity to transform the engineering and construction sector so it can simultaneously increase output whilst delivering Ireland’s housing and infrastructure sustainably. The Government has increased infrastructure and housing investment dramatically over the last decade through the National Development Plan and successive housing strategies.

“The Government, with industry, has set out seven key initiatives aimed at improving the construction industry’s capacity. These focus on, inter alia, digitalising the industry, upskilling huge swathes of the industry’s workforce, increasing innovation in engineering and construction, and developing a Modern Methods of Construction sector. With a relatively low level of investment in the millions, the Government could build the capacity of the industry to deliver billions in housing and infrastructure sustainably.”

The ACEI submitted its recommendations to Minister Paschal Donohoe TD, in advance of the budget. The submission budget emphasised the critical role of design and consulting engineering in reducing costs, overruns, and other delivery issue on major infrastructure in Ireland.

Dempsey added: “The reality is that investing more in the engineering and design stage of infrastructure projects is the best opportunity to reduce cost overruns, delays and other issues later in the construction phase. Investing in design is the optimum phase to manage life-cycle costs and reduce the carbon footprint of our building. Consulting engineers will design the solutions to enable the state to sustainably build sustainable buildings and a resilient economy.

The ACEI has, like other sectors in the industry, has reported a significant slowdown the number of project-starts amongst public sector contracting authorities such as Uisce Éireann and TII and the Department of Education. The submission outlined how critical it is that the budgets of these bodies should be ring-fenced and be allocated on a multi-year basis. The uncertainty in the flow of projects coming online has seen many consulting engineering firms retain staff and invest in their business.

“Worryingly, consulting engineers are reporting that even the reduced number of public sector projects coming online are not attractive due to a range of unfair contractual conditions imposed by contracting authorities. For example, some bodies delivering housing for the State are utilising onerous collateral warranty obligations that place disproportionate costs on consulting engineers, significantly increasing the cost of public indemnity insurance.  It’s not surprising that many consulting engineers are reducing the proportion of public sector projects they are tendering for. If this trend continues, it will put the delivery of housing and infrastructure the State requires in jeopardy. We’ve consistently requested that the Government introduce net contribution clauses to make public sector projects more attractive. This can be done with the stroke of a pen with no cost to the State.”